Traffic plans for retail mall in Mahwah tweaked

Mahwah — The traffic engineer of the proposed Crossroads Town Center at Routes 17 and 287 presented a revised plan to access the site at last week’s Planning Board meeting.

Board members on Monday, Dec. 3, offered positive feedback on the plan, which moves the primary access point to the Crossroads North entrance. However, board members indicated they still had reservations about the off-site traffic plans.

Traffic was last addressed in August, when the developer’s traffic engineer Dan Disario proposed an entrance to the site from Route 17 north using Leisure Lane.

Board members indicated they were not satisfied with the plan, which required mall traffic to enter the site at Leisure Lane, where a Coach bus depot and truck stop are located and where residents of Stag Hill were exiting to access their road via a nearby flyway to reach Route 17 south.

"We went back to the drawing board to address those concerns," Disario said. "This [revised] plan is a reflection of the public’s and board’s comments from the meetings in the past."

New entrance

The new plan eliminates Leisure Lane as an entrance, reserving it for emergency vehicle access. Instead, the main entrance is proposed for the existing Crossroad North exit off Route 17 north. That exit leads traffic to the site on Orient Boulevard, and would have a three-lane entrance and three-lane exit.

Local traffic exiting Route 17 north to access Stag Hill would travel past Leisure Lane on Cross Road to the Mountainside Road overpass, separate from traffic entering the mall.

"Most if not all of the retailgoers will take this exit," Disario said. "There would be signage directing traffic up" to the main entrance at the Crossroad North exit.

However, exiting mall traffic headed south on Route 17 would travel on the same Mountainside Road overpass with local residents.

Councilman Charles Jandris, who also sits on the Planning Board, said most local residents would ignore the signage and continue to use the Leisure Lane shortcut, however.

"I’m getting more comfortable with access to the site, but I think we need to keep working on getting out of it," Sherer said.

Disario again presented the proposal for a ramp for mall traffic exiting onto Route 17 south via Mountainside Road, a suggestion previously made by township traffic engineer Judd Rocciola. Disario said about 15 percent of the patrons to the site will be coming from the north, while the balance will come from the south — noting heavier traffic will be taking the proposed Route 17 south ramp.

Disario estimated the cost of the south-bound exit ramp off Mountainside Road at $300,000 to $400,000.